Monica Rezman always has had a knack for balance. Her first residence in Chicago was a wide-open, clean-lined, light-filled loft, which she immediately felt compelled to fill with Louis XIV furnishings. Many visitors probably surmised Rezman to be a collector of the dark, elaborately detailed period antiques, but no, it was simply her answer to the surroundings.
Her current home, a 1920s, two-story brick number in Logan Square, is equally seesaw in nature. Rezman, 49, and her husband Jamshed Writer, age 43 — both artists — moved into the two-flat apartment building three years ago with their 5-year-old daughter, Ruby, and transformed it into a modern, single-family home characterized by protruding planes of steel and glass. The moment the last laborer had packed up his toolbox, Rezman was out the door, hunting down the cushy, colorful, vintage furnishings and accessories that would become the yin to the home’s yang. “I’ve always felt that a home’s furnishings have to relate somewhat to the architecture,” Rezman says.
In her case, it’s an inverse relation she seeks. And she achieves it to superb effect. Her Logan Square home is at once homey and sophisticated; hot and cold; sparse and full. Architect Carlos Concepcion is responsible for the modern side of the seesaw. Rezman and Writer tapped his services after spotting one of his homes in a real estate advertisement.
Concepcion, a senior designer with the Chicago firm Solomon Cordwell Buenz and Associates, answered the call with a customized interpretation of his trademark design philosophy. “It’s the notion of interventions and incisions in an existing context,” Concepcion says. In layman’s speak: Concepcion divides residential spaces into series of boxes and planes using large, machine-esque materials throughout, and in some cases, removing existing sections. “You can think of it as surgery — or attaching a prosthesis to an existing organism,” he says. “The resulting architecture lies in the tension between the new and old.”
And so the scene was perfectly set for Rezman to inject her own dose of tension in this dramatic production.
Act 1: Concepcion surgically removes sections of masonry wall, flooring and ceiling, and implants gigantic sheets of corrugated metal, stainless steel and glass.
Act 2: Rezman enters with a hodgepodge collection of thrift-store finds and designer hand-me-downs for a grand finale that’s in perfect harmony and yet utterly surprising. Such a dichotomous approach clearly requires some risk-taking; so how does Rezman pull off such a bull’s-eye? “I make plenty of mistakes,” she readily admits.
Not quite as readily, she begins to recount a couple of them. “OK, I’ll tell you a mistake I made. It’s driving me crazy. I had this sofa sectional reupholstered in an orange microfiber, and my upholsterer — he does a fantastic job — but he enlarged the cushions when he reupholstered them. The couch is more comfortable now, but the cushions don’t align with the back frame like they used to.”
“What else?” Rezman continues, “I paid to have four different colors of curtains made before I found the ones I liked. I hated them all; they were too dark. Finally I just gave up and got white muslin. They’re perfect.”
“I’m very sensitive to my environment. If it’s not right, I’m not right. But I have to live with things for a while before I know.”
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THE YIN & THE YANG
Architect Carlos Concepcion’s design “points” meet Monica Rezman’s “counterpoints”:
Windows
Point: A “curtain wall” of glass
Counterpoint: Flowy muslin curtains
Shapes
Point: Rectangular windows two stories high
Counterpoint: Large, round, low-hanging Artemide pendant lights
Colors
Point: Dark cherry wood floors
Counterpoint: Fluffy white flokati rug
Texture/warmth
Point: Hot-rolled-steel chimney (not shown in this photo)
Counterpoint: Rusted chimney hood
Color/texture
Point: Dark granite counter tops (not shown in this photo)
Counterpoint: White plastic bar stools
Warmth
Point: Corrugated-metal-clad interior wall (not shown in this photo)
Counterpoint: Daughter Ruby’s toy wooden kitchen set
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swunderlich@tribune.com
See also “Behind house of opposites, an artist’s atelier,” Home & Garden section, Page 9
